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| Sadene Andalara; Master Wizard | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 2 2011, 06:59 AM (284 Views) | |
| lmr | Dec 2 2011, 06:59 AM Post #1 |
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Name: Sadene Andalara Race: Dunmer Age: 89 Gender: Female Sign: The Mage Faction: Mages Guild Rank: Master Wizard Appearance: Sadene Andalara is a Dark Elf woman of very little height and curvaceous build, standing at five feet even and weighing 100 pounds. As is typical for women of her species, her skin is a dark blue-grey, and her eyes are blood-red, often seeming to ‘glow’ under certain lighting conditions. Her ears are long and taper outward to a very distinct point. Sadene’s facial features are quite distinct, with a rather elegant appearance. Her jaw in particular is well-formed, only slightly angular and not particularly sharp. Her cheeks are chiseled, and her lips are full. She has a patrician nose, straight and of perfect length, neither stubby nor excessively long. Her hair is blacker than midnight, and falls to her lower back. It is generally straight, though often tousled, as she often forgets to take care of it. Frequently it falls into her eyes as if it has a will of its own, and has to be pulled off her face. However, apart from that omission she is generally quite presentable. On the whole, she is a very attractive woman, though quite petite. She is in the prime of her life as a member of a long-lived species, though 89 might seem old to men or beast races. ![]() Armor/Clothing: Sadene wears an extravagant burgundy robe with dark purple detailing in patterns resembling ivy, loosely cut around her body without being baggy. It is obviously a well-tailored garment, and is decorated with ornate embroidery. Around her waist is a sash that serves as a belt, and conceals a sheath at the small of her back for her only real weapon. She wears around her neck a golden amulet, whose pendant is the Dunmeri letter S, for her name. It was a gift from her grandfather, the one member of her family who still remains close. He enchanted it to fortify the luck of the wearer, in the hopes it would make a difference in all the small things. She also possesses more common attire for use when traveling, a blue short sleeved shirt made of coarse cloth, and light brown pants of similar weight. She possesses a pair of quality shoes in a gold color, and a pair of netch leather boots that serve better in the mud and muck of Black Marsh, which she uses for traveling. Weapons: One glass dagger, enchanted to cause fire damage. She also possesses an ebony wizard's staff, for formal occasions as a symbol of her rank rather than a real weapon. Possessions: Sadene has a small private quarters in the tower of the Soulrest Mages Guild Hall, with a compact but valuable library (including many religious texts of the Tribunal Temple), a few alchemical devices, a comfortable bed, and a very special feature: a magical Shrine of the Tribunal, brought all the way from Morrowind to reside in her quarters as a symbol of her faith. She also possesses a stringed lute which she can play with a certain degree of skill, and all the items she needs to carry out her duties as Master Wizard, such as paper, ink, quills, wax, and her Mages Guild signet ring, which always resides safely on her hand. Personality: Sadene is very much a mage in temperament, extremely intelligent, if absent-minded at times. She's devoted her life to the study of magic, and she has the confidence of an expert, which is rightly deserved. Her devotion to the Mages Guild is unquestionable, as is her skill; she fully deserves the rank of Master Wizard. However she does have some disadvantages to her personality, traits largely common among her race are the most pronounced of these. To begin with, Sadene Andalara is not particularly known for her easygoing and trusting nature. She is wary, and she is distrusting. It takes a very long time and a lot of effort to enter her good graces, and longer still to be called a friend. As a result, she has very few friends over her three years in Black Marsh. In fact, there are very few people she even confides in, preferring to keep her problems and her concerns to herself. The exception is her work. As a necessity, she is close to the five wizards in Black Marsh, and has built up working relationships with them. Some are less trustworthy than others in her eyes, but all have merit and long track records of service for the Guild, and thus merit a deal of respect from her. She is also grim, with a rather severe and dire outlook on life. She expects the worst in situations, and as a result she often finds it. When accused of being a pessimist, she replies she is merely a realist, and that any one who can be optimistic living in Black Marsh is a complete and utter fool. She doesn't mince words unless there is some sort of pressing need to maintain her silence or some sort of illusion, preferring to simply say what she feels. Among her own race, she is kinder, more trusting, and more likely to make friends, thanks to another common Dunmer value: racism. Growing up in Great House Indoril, she was taught to value Dunmer traditions and culture over all others, and she was raised as part of a very insular community in which many Imperial laws and practices were not followed. Slavery was a chief example. Though her family never owned slaves, the practice was seen as a tradition and as such commanded a degree of respect. Accordingly, Sadene herself respects the practice of slavery. She believes it is natural, and doesn't believe it is the Empire's place to meddle in it. She doesn't conceal very well her disdain for the beast races, which usually manifests itself in the form of avoiding long discussions with them, not shaking hands, and avoiding projects with them. She is somewhat more at ease around man, though she looks down on Nords as brutes and Imperials as conniving bureaucrats. She has a reasonable respect for Bretons as skilled wielders of magicka, and a certain appreciation for the adventurous ways of the Redguards. Among mer, she has her favorites and her less favorites. Of her greatest comfort and respect are her own people, the Dunmer. They are closely followed by the Altmer, as a people highly skilled with magic, and a truly prestigious civilization. The Bosmer she finds to be a contradiction of sorts, with admirable connections to nature but a truly barbaric ritual cannibalism. She can be quite condescending to other races. At times she can be downright paranoid, the product of no less than seven attempts on her life during her time in Argonia by the Black Scales, none of which has left a single mark on her body. Her mind wasn’t quite so unscathed, and it adds another dimension to the way she looks on Argonians, with distrust from experience as well as prejudice. However despite her wary and biased nature, Sadene is not without redeeming attributes. She has a very deep faith in the Tribunal Temple, holding to many of the tenets expressed in Saryoni's Sermons and in the staple of her childhood, Homilies of Blessed Almalexia. As such, she has a great appreciation for charity, kindness, patience, and understanding. She uses them as a guide for her behavior, a moral compass if you will. She falls short of her goals of conduct, proving she is indeed mortal, but she generally makes a good faith effort to do the right thing. In terms of romance, she is rather hampered by her circumstances. There are very few men in Tamriel who would want a woman more successful than they, and away from Morrowind it becomes even harder to find another Dunmer who is a devout worshiper of Almsivi. If her standards were lower, she'd easily be able to win a man with her good looks and the better aspects of her personality, but she isn't content with anything less than what she really wants, which means she always goes without. She doesn't precisely have a winning personality, but she is capable of being quite charming and charismatic when there is need, with and without magical means, though she often prefers the latter. She can be very well-mannered when the need arises, and knows how to comport herself in formal situations, particularly her visits to the Arcane University in Cyrodil every year or two to report to the Arch-Mage. Bio: Sadene Andalara was born in 3E 316 in the province of Morrowind, in the city of Almalexia. Her father was an Ordinator, a religious guard of the Tribunal Temple, the native Dunmer religion, and her mother remained at home, taking care of the house and the large family. In all, it was ten people living under a single roof. But it wasn’t especially crowded, as the roof was quite large. They were a minor noble family in Great House Indoril, which still afforded some prestige and power despite the misfortunes of the House after the Empire incorporated Morrowind as a province. There were Adaves and Shana Nerethi, Sadene’s grandparents on her mother’s side, her father Parseth, her mother Ralmora, and six children. The eldest was Baden, who was approximately a decade older than the youngest child. He was always the spitting image of his father, quite the young leader and always the apple of his parents’ eye. Next was Tadali, the eldest daughter in the family, who took after her mother. She was always the precocious child, engaged in her studies. After her came Sadene. Sadene was always the black sheep of the family, taking after neither her father nor mother in appearance or temperament. Her parents and her siblings all had flaming red hair. She had After Sadene came twin boys, Vaden and Folms, and rounding out the family was Bradas, the final son. Growing up, Sadene faced a daily life that was hardly pleasant. At home her parents were strict and devout, working hard to instill their values in all their children, even their second daughter who didn’t quite fit in. She spent a lot more of her time playing the lute in the windowsill of her second story room than she did talking with the others. While her brothers had a rather typical interest in swords and combat, and her sister had an interest in fabrics and furniture, Sadene had an interest in magic from an early age. This was viewed as somewhat problematic by her extremely orthodox parents. Magic was something left to the ranks of the Tribunal Temple or the reclusive wizards of House Telvanni. As an Indoril, the latter was right out, so at the age of 16, Sadene Andalara became a Novice in the Tribunal Temple. Quite promptly, she was moved away from home, heading out into the countryside to learn more than the simple stories she’d grown up on. The Temple instilled her with concepts of virtue, and walking in the footsteps of Almsivi, an example she followed literally by undertaking the Pilgrimage of the Seven Graces at the age of 19, on the island of Vvardenfell, armed only with a slightly rusty short sword, her lute, and her faith. The pilgrimage was one of her formative experiences, the one that truly cemented her faith, something she always keeps with her. At the time the island was largely undeveloped, with only a handful of settlements, most administered by the Temple. It was an area where the only other people were fellow pilgrims and Ashlander tribes. For her, the pilgrimage began in the city of Vivec, when she disembarked from the boat her parents had booked her passage on. With her were two other pilgrims, both male Dunmer, one named Sodril, and the other Anasour. She described them as ‘my fellow pilgrims,’ and proposed that the three of them carry out the seven pilgrimages as a group, for safety in the dangerous territory of Vvardenfell. They agreed, and they began with the two locations in Vivec. The first was the easiest, as the trio merely had to walk along the floating cantons of Vivec until the reached the Temple section, below the floating moon stopped by Vivec himself, the Ministry of Truth. They placed their offerings and headed to the Puzzle Canal beneath Vivec’s palace to undertake the Grace of Courtesy. Whether by magic or coincidence, they found themselves lost in the maze-like, dark corridors. Sadene was the first to reach the center of the labyrinth and read the inscription on the shrine: Breathe the Waters of His Glory and the Way is Made Clear. What followed was a true test of her faith. For long moments she sat on the step, wondering if she’d read it wrong or interpreted it wrong. But try as she might, she couldn’t think of any alternatives. With a sense of dread and fear, she waded into the waters, then kneeled and let the water flow over her head. Then she forced herself to open her mouth and nose, letting the water flow into her lungs. She thrashed around, her body in rebellion, but her mind asserting supremacy just long enough to ensure blackness took her. When she awoke, she was lying on her back, staring up at a bridge she hadn’t seen moments before, alive and well, if a bit shaken. Her faith had just been vindicated, as her very life had been saved through it. With a giddy excitement, she climbed up the stairs and over the bridge, finding herself in a room face to face with a Dremora. Only she wasn’t scared. Her life hadn’t been saved just to lose it again, there had to be a purpose to this. And then she realized what it was; it was a challenge to repeat precisely what Vivec had done. She took a longsword from a chest and handed it to the unarmed Daedra, emulating what Vivec had done. She completed the pilgrimage. One by one they completed pilgrimages, traveling to the Fields of Kummu, Gnisis, the Koal Cave, and the fortress of Ghostgate. Along the way, not all was well. They were attacked by nix hounds, cliff racers, kagouti and alit. They had to deal with pouring rain in the wilderness. There were no beds, there was little food. Their feet were sore, and they were tired. In the Koal cave, Sodril set off to fight a Dreugh inside the sea cave, determined to best the aquatic creature like Lord Vivec. He never came out. After that they were reduced to a pair of travelers. As was true of many young Dunmer women, Sadene was more than a little promiscuous, something her parents were not exactly enthusiastic over, and it showed in her relationship to Anasour. They were more than just fellow pilgrims, and she didn’t lie flush with his back on rainy nights just to share body heat; that was only her excuse. However, if he reciprocated, Anasour was too timid to confess it, and they never said anything in words. The Pilgrimage of the Seven Graces didn’t leave anyone unchanged, and Sadene was no exception. The growth of her faith and the loss of her friend sobered her outlook on life a great deal, and she became more reserved, gaining an introverted sensibility instead of her former extroverted demeanor. She was also considerably more comfortable with the prospect of devoting her life to the Temple than she once had been, and was even promoted to Initiate in the Temple, and placed in a larger Temple in the Indoril district of Morrowind, where her noble name wouldn’t be held against her by other Houses. She stayed there at the Temple in Necrom for seven years, learning about alchemy and restoration, and occasionally dabbling in mysticism and alteration. She was laying the foundations for real skills she could use in her career with the Temple. However she grew rather tired with the City of the Dead, and wanted something more alive. There were so many options in Morrowind, but she decided to travel to the Great House Hlaalu city of Narsis, in the hopes of reminding them where their faith lay. What she found was something quite different. Sadene was 26 years old, with a degree of magical talent, a solid work ethic and a concrete faith. However, she also had the potential to make a major change, and it came on the day she was requested to help a new friend carry out some errands. This friend was a Hlaalu named Raalen, a decent sort despite his House affiliation. He was only slightly conniving, and mostly curious about magic, which was a source of bonding with Sadene, who had never lost her own fascination with the magical arts. His curiosity carried him into the field of mysticism, particularly with gathering souls into soul gems for the purposes of enchanting. He needed supplies, and he gained them when he dragged Sadene into the city’s Mages Guild Hall. Sadene felt like a vampire in sunlight. She was more than just an Adept of the Temple, she was an Indoril noble. It was her duty to shun all things Imperial and retain the old Dunmer ways. She didn’t want to even enter the building, and it took literally shoving on the part of Raalen to get her in and shut the door behind her. While inside the Mages tried very hard to be friendly, and were met with monosyllabic replies and a sudden interest in potted plants. She picked up the Mages Guild charter and started to read through it, absolutely certain there’d be an endorsement of witchcraft or necromancy, that there’d be something profane and unholy about it. Much to her surprise, there was no such thing. The organization existed solely to study magic and provide magical services to the public. Her cheeks lightened in hue and her ears felt hot, and immediately she apologized, explaining her incorrect first assumption. The gathered Mages laughed, then invited her back for lunch some time and a discussion of the Guild. It was a pretty big change in just a day, but Sadene agreed. The next day she was at their Guild Hall, sitting down to a simple meal of kwama eggs and hound meat, and listening to a thoughtful discourse on the role of the Guild. They all agreed it wasn’t the place of the Guild to force Imperial customs and religion on the provinces, which was quite the relief to Sadene. By the end of the meal, she’d done more than put her animosity to the Guild behind her, she’d agreed to spend time training in the College of Illusion at the Guild, to explore a school of magic she’d always wanted to learn but never been exposed to. Understandably she didn’t mention any of this to her fellow worshippers at the Temple, and she trained with the Mages in silence for a year. It was quite understandable that eventually her fellow worshippers would hear, but it was a Hlaalu city, and she’d forgotten that they didn’t mind. In Indoril or Dres territory it would have been different, but here it was normal. Her friend Raalen even reminded her of that, and persuaded her to take the next step by joining the Mages Guild and becoming an Associate. With no small amount of apprehension, she did. Entering the Guild was a new chapter in her life, and was considerably different than her previous time on Vvardenfell and in Almalexia and Necrom. In the Guild there was a more relaxed approach taken to magic, and pursuing it purely out of curiosity was welcomed. Before she’d always been told quite emphatically the practical reasons to study magic and the ways she could put it to use for her family or for the greater glory of Almsivi. This was the first time she’d been able to study magicka purely for herself and her own edification, and she liked it. She liked it a lot. And what was more, she was more at ease here than with her family. There were only a few small problems with her presence in the Guild. She didn’t feel particularly intelligent or useful, no matter how many times she was praised as a bright student of the arcane arts and thanked for doing a job well done. She always felt there was room for improvement, possibly the product of her family’s high expectations. The other small problem was a discomfort around… certain races. Her fellow elves she could more or less relate to, because they shared so many features. Even men, from Redguards to Nords, she could relate to. They had lips and noses, fingers, hair, normal eyes. To be true these weren’t the same color, and there were plenty of differences, but they provided more potential for bonding. In stark contrast were the beast species, the Khajit and the Argonians. She never felt comfortable around them and their alien ways. Her trust was rarely extended to them, and she avoided them, staying true to the clannish and wary nature of the Dark Elves. Her first assignments as member of the guild were simple ones, generally running errands for journeymen and higher-ups who needed others to go gather ingredients. She became extremely familiar with the countryside outside Narsis, and with all the regional plants and animals. Everything had an alchemical use it seemed, and it became the topic of a few research papers. It also had a few practical applications, as on the road with just a mortar and pestle she could craft potions to restore her fatigue. However the area she excelled in was not alchemy. It was illusion, and noteworthy progress in charming spells won her the title of Journeyman, just two years after she became an associate. She was 29, and it was a promotion well-deserved, one that might have come a lot sooner if she hadn’t still been working in the Temple as well. As a journeyman, Sadene wasted no time delegating some of her work to others. There was always an associate in the Guild hall ready and willing to fetch her a loaf of bread and a bottle of shein, or of greef on occasion. She found that most convenient, as it gave her that much more time to work on chameleon spells. Fortunately there were beds in the hall, for those frequent occasions when she didn’t make it back to the small room she rented. Her first chameleon spells were purely beginner’s level, only slightly changing her appearance to match the wall behind her, and whenever she moved it took time to adjust. On the whole, it wasn’t very impressive. But bit by bit, she grew incrementally better at it. Her charm spells were much the same way, but the other Mages insisted she had talent and encouraged her to pursue it, though they also encouraged her to broaden her horizons to other fields of magicka as well. As a result, she started to study alteration and mysticism as well. Alteration, she found, was highly practical. Water-walking and levitation were her favorites by far, though the latter took a great deal of getting used to. At first she had more than a few problems casting the spell and using it. Flight was not intuitive, and she found herself suffering from severe vertigo, severe enough that she fell over multiple times, spiraling to the ground and landing in an inglorious heap. However, with a little guidance from an Altmer named Aloril she was able to maintain her vertical orientation while levitating, and with time she even managed to move with a certain degree of grace and poise. Aloril also provided her with instructions on water-walking, so ‘you won’t get your pretty little feet wet,’ as the High Elf described it. If he did possess a rather unusual interest in her feet, he was also a very adept instructor. Under other circumstances she might have pursued a relationship with him, except he really and genuinely wasn’t her ‘type.’ He was arrogant, he was absent-minded. She had enough of those traits herself and wanted someone more dependable and driven. It became a chronic problem for others to have interest in her that she didn’t reciprocate. Over the years she had a dozen suitors, a select few of which she didn’t find loathsome or unconscionable. The very first one was Aloril, who was sixty years her senior. That wasn’t particularly a problem given the life spans of Elves, which meant age was viewed rather differently. He was also almost eerily creepy, with a fascination that bordered on mania regarding her legs. And as it happened, he was an Evoker in the Guild, outranking her considerably. To be true, if she welcomed his advances she’d probably have received her own advances in the Guild. But he was simply too creepy, and was rejected categorically. Then there was Caius and Gaius, Imperial twins and Associates under her in the Mages Guild. That would have been star-crossed at the very best, as she was an Indoril and they were both extremely loyal subjects of the Empire. To further complicate things, she thought they were both bureaucratic fools while they both thought she was like an angel descended from the heavens. But the final nail in the coffin was the fact they worshipped the Nine Divines and not the Tribunal. In her eyes anything would have been better than that, with the possible exception of worshipping the bad Daedra. After the twins finally gave up on winning her over, there was a rapid succession of men with passing fancies who gave up on her when they realized she wasn’t easy. A Nord named Hrolf, whose opinion of himself was insufferable, a Breton named Fireln, who was old and bald, and an Orc named Glorg, who was an Orc. All of them were rejected. In fact, there was only two men she found appealing, one of whom she did enter a relationship with. The first was a charming young Hlaalu noble named Ralen. He was dashing and chivalrous, always pulling out her chair for her and holding doors. The only problem was his frequent absences. She appreciated his panache, and he respected her boundaries. He didn’t push their relationship too fast, preferring to let it fall into place. Things did, and after two solid months of romance, she slept with him. He was immensely gratified, but a small problem emerged halfway through the night. He called out someone else’s name. She forgave him, but the next day she paid a passing adventurer to tail him and find out what he was up to during his absences. The report was quite surprising, he was seeing three other women. She broke it off with him the very same day. The second man was a timid Dunmer, a lowly gardener working for the city of Almalexia. He was only twenty years her senior, and was most definitely her type. Best of all, he was a pious follower of Almsivi. There was just one problem: social class. Her noble family would never allow their daughter, black sheep or not, to marry a simple gardener. What could have been a splendid relationship never went beyond special looks and lingering touches. And finally there was Faeir. She was a Bosmer, and she was incredibly persistent. She was also even shorter than Sadene was herself, which was truly saying something. The very first day they met, Faeir made professions of love. Sadene had less than zero interest in her, and very little interest in women in general, she even said so quite explicitly. Despite that, the Wood Elf asked Sadene to have dinner with her. She declined, stating that she had work to do. She asked again the next day. And the next. And the next. Every day for two weeks she asked, until finally she threatened to afflict the annoying Bosmer with a blight curse so severe her great grandchildren would be stunted and deformed. That finally succeeded in shutting her up, though she still gave her forlorn glances and occasionally graced her with suggestive comments. Extreme action was needed to escape her and Aloril, so she went to the head of the Guild Hall and asked if he could arrange for her to move to a different one. He did just that, and sent her to a newly constructed Guild Hall in Tear, with the rank of Evoker. His thinking was that an Indoril would have closer relations with House Dres and be more welcome in their territory than other Mages. He was quite right in that respect, though he was a little overly optimistic. She was 35, still quite young in the eyes of House Dres officials, who didn’t find her opinion exactly compelling. It would take a full decade in the Dres city to have the locals fully accept the Mages Guild as a productive aspect of society rather than a hotbed of sedition and an assault on Dunmeri culture. That first year was among the hardest work she’d ever had to do, because it wasn’t an issue of magic or faith, it was one of politics. House Dres did not like the Empire, or Imperial guilds. And they didn’t like non-natives, even if they were still Dunmer. That meant the Dark Elf Mage they’d brought in from Cyrodil to run the guild hall was not liked or effective. Gilmor Thranel was a good leader in his own way, but he had trouble working with the Dres authorities. Guards didn’t respond to calls over thieves, building permits weren’t issued, and a surprising amount of new taxes appeared on the Guild and Guild members. Thranel was sinking fast, and unsure how to react to such a negative climate. He needed help. Luckily for him and the Guild, Sadene was there. The very second Gilmor realized she was an Indoril noble, he knew she was his ticket to acceptance. Houses Indoril and Dres were very close allies, and having Sadene as a Mage gave them prestige and credibility. He promoted her to Conjurer and made her his assistant, his right hand. Immediately he made the goodwill ambassador, and sent her in his stead to meet with Dres officials, where the name Andalara was welcome. She made a point to inject her strong faith into the meetings, starting with prayers to Almsivi. That usually merited surprise from the Dres officials who’d thought the Mages Guild was some godless monstrosity. They were quite pleasantly surprised by the five foot tall Mage, and by the end of the meeting they thought the real outrage wasn’t that the Mages Guild wanted to build another Guild Hall in Dres territory, it was that Sadene Andalara wasn’t running the Guild. Bureaucrat by bureaucrat and noble by noble, she won them over, some with the help of a subtle charm spell or two, and others merely by her own skill. It wasn’t easy at all. It took a great deal of persuasion, and five years of hard, hard work. With Sadene at his side, Gilmor Thranel was able to make real and concrete progress for the Guild. Their hall in Tear was expanded with new construction, with permits promptly granted without a single fee. They even opened another hall in the nearby city of Kithendis Falls, which was sponsored by one Dres noble won over to the cause by Sadene Andalara. She brought respectability to the Guild, and that in turn brought her a measure of respect from the community and admiration from other members of the Guild. Her opinions carried weight now, and she even had social standing. She was invited to dinners with influential organizations and given tickets to events free of charge. She was positively the darling of Tear, and Gilmor… He was not. He was always viewed as the outsider, and despite Sadene’s continual efforts to include him, the locals seemed to prefer excluding him. She felt genuinely sorry for him. However, despite her political business and achievements, she wasn’t exactly lax in her studies of magicka either. Its properties and purposes continued to fascinate her, as they always had, and she continued to devote the bulk of her time to three schools in particular: alteration, illusion, and mysticism. She’d started with only an appreciation for illusion, which had broadened to alteration. And now mysticism had captured her attention. She set to work promptly learning a pair of spells she valued quite highly: mark and recall. The first spell designated a magical ‘target,’ which for her purposes was the central room of the Tear Guild Hall. The second spell, if done correctly, returned you to your mark. However, her first time did not go correctly. Instead of returning to the Guild Hall from city center, she appeared inside a broom closet in a local family’s house when they were sitting down for dinner. To add insult to injury, a bucket of water toppled over onto her. She walked back to the Guild soaking, with her wet hair in her face. It prompted a few laughs, which were met with savage glares. After that she tried it smaller at first, moving from one end of the room to the other. That was manageable, even though it made her feel like a complete and utter child to take such small steps. Like it or not, she was still very much a learner. And in her case, it was ‘or not.’ Sadene positively loathed not being good at a given field, which made her learning endeavors a little… unusual. But she managed to learn anyway. When she wasn’t engaged in learning and politics, she found herself engaged in instruction, taking up the job of trainer for the Illusion skill in the Tear Guild Hall. They made a dedicated effort to have instructors for each college of magic on hand to provide training to the general public, and Sadene’s skills in that field were considerable. However, her interpersonal skills were a little less polished, and her standards as a trainer were high. She didn’t like repeating herself, and she routinely berated those who didn’t pay enough attention, often lamenting their inadequacy to her fellow mages. One of the mages, an Orc name Gorbak Gro-Rushzorg took issue with that and resented her, she was convinced for her political success in the guild, though he maintained it was just as much her condescension. Yes, she was rather condescending. Sometimes it was a wonder Orcs could even talk, least of all practice magic. She never told him that of course, but he knew quite well she was thinking it. Finally he was fed up enough that he took action. He slapped Sadene in the face one day when she complained about a customer. And that was that. In the finest Dunmer tradition, she challenged him to a duel. That was considered a controversial move in the Guild, as it was against the rules to harm another member. The leaders of the guild met, and in a close ruling, by the authority of Gilmor Thranel, they ruled this was permissible. It was worth noting that they believed Gorbak had already violated the rules anyway by striking Sadene. They met in a clearing just outside the city walls, with fellow mages and Tear residents alike watching from the rooftops, eager to see how a battle of magic was fought. There had been other duels in Tear before of course, matters of honor. But this was the first time two members of an Imperial Guild had taken to the practice. Betting was taking place, and the more simple-minded were wagering on the Orc who was a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier. However those experienced with magic, and those who truly knew Sadene well, were betting on her as the more experienced and talented of the two. The duel begin with a rapid flurry of spells by the both of them, with Sadene favoring fast acting fireballs and Gorbak utilizing slowly acting poison spells. The Dark Elf was considerably more agile than her nemesis though, and she managed to avoid more of his attacks. Her real first strike came when a timely reflect spell caused Gorbak to be poisoned himself. He had to break the fight to cure himself, which bought Sadene a few seconds to heal her own injuries. After she had done so, she made the Orc regret accepting the challenge of an illusionist by casting an invisibility spell. She calmly walked around behind him, knife in hand, and stabbed him in the neck. He spun to grab her, but she cast a blinding spell on him and stepped back, letting him feebly circle in search of her while clutching his bloody wound. Every time he came close, she slashed again with her knife, wearing him down. Finally he simply fell to the ground, exhausted. Sadene had to admit she was too, but she found enough energy to do the right thing. She used her limited healing skills to stop the bleeding in his neck wound. That act impressed the other mages. After the duel, Sadene politely told Gorbak to leave Morrowind entirely, and he did. Thranel promoted his right hand to the rank of Magician, and presented her with an ornamental silver staff. Things were good. Quite good in fact. It stood to reason that something had to change. She was 44 years old, a successful mage, seen as a hard worker, and politically astute. However, there was some concern among the Guild that she wasn’t enough of a scholar. They set out to make her one, in what Sadene referred to as ‘typical Imperial meddling.’ They were determined to force her to see more of the continent, starting with Cyrodil, which many of the mages lauded as refined and sophisticated beyond any of the provinces. Sadene was placed onto a ship, and began the many day voyage down along the coast, along Black Marsh, and up into Cyrodil. For the first day she was incredibly seasick and uncomfortable, it was her first lengthy journey by ship. The Shipmaster was a Nord, a loud and boisterous man fitting the archetype of his species perfectly. In other words, she didn’t like him. She didn’t like him at all, and getting off the ship at the Imperial City was a truly happy experience. However, she found the temperate terrain to be incredibly different, and the stone architecture was far from familiar. The foods were different, without kwama eggs and nix hound meat, marshmerrow or saltrice. And there was certainly no hackle-lo. However bread was much the same, cheese was surprisingly tasty, and the alcohol was good. But she was around Imperials extensively. Insufferably pompous Imperials, or so it seemed to her. It was quite obvious they weren’t used to ‘Dark Elves,’ as they called her people, and she drew more than a few stares. Her body language and her accent revealed she was from Morrowind rather than one of the rare outlander Dunmer who resided outside the boundaries of the easternmost province. She was very much the outsider here, particularly in matters of religion. Worship of the Nine Divines was everywhere in Cyrodil, which made her uncomfortable to say the least. There were no shrines to Almsivi anywhere to be found, though otherwise the Arcane University was quite comfortable. On the whole, she found keener minds there than in Tear, though the temperaments and outlooks were still rather similar. Mages were mages, no matter where you went. One mage in particular, a Redguard named Anclara, was nothing at all like her contemporaries. She was quite adventurous, befitting her blood, and liked to consider herself a Dwemer enthusiast. Her enthusiasm talked others into a rather daunting project for the guild: taking a ruined Dwemer Orrery in the southern deserts of Hammerfell and repairing it for the purposes of turning it into a Guild-operated observatory. The idea was completely daft, and everyone knew it. But the Guild, as Sadene often lamented, was into several rather absurd things. She protested, but she was chosen to aid in the project despite no particular interest in astronomy or the Dwemer. To be true she appreciated their handiwork and devices, which reminded her of Sotha Sil and his clockwork creations, but they had been godless. And they’d paid for their lack of faith it could be said. Perhaps she was selected for the project solely so someone who didn’t believe in it could have a critical eye. Sadene Andalara was highly critical, for six years. She was 52 when she set her course back to Morrowind, with the new rank of Wizard and with a special new assignment. She was made the head of a Guild Hall in the Redoran city of Blacklight, in the north of Morrowind right across the inner sea from Gnisis, a town she’d visited on her pilgrimages those many years ago. The climate was about what she’d expected from those latitudes. The sky was constantly grey, and it was always raining. There was a good deal of mud, and there was a thriving industry of harvesting kresh fibers and muck, supplemented by fishing and kwama egg mining. The local Redorans were courteous enough, not especially fond of the Guild, but respecting Sadene personally as a faithful Dunmer and member of a traditional Great House. They were definitely not a problem for the woman who’d succeeded in winning over House Dres. No, the real problem was assembling a decent group of mages for her corner of Tamriel. Blacklight had very little to recommend itself to prospective magic-users to be fully honest. The city was much more heavily centered around the martial arts than the arcane arts, a legacy of the long-standing hostilities between Skyrim and Morrowind. However Sadene saw potential there, a way to capitalize on the persistent fear of wars. The Dunmer had always believed in integrating magic into warfare, and she was firmly convinced that given the chance to train Battlemages and Spellswords the Redorans would seize it. Of course there were a few things to do first, bridges to build. As always, Imperial Guilds in Morrowind required a special political touch. She had that touch. Step one was visiting the Temple. Luckily she was faithful, and regular services were something she wanted anyway. Since the Redoran nobles were faithful as well, they naturally met each other. As the Dres nobles before them, they were pleasantly surprised to see a faithful Dunmer follower of Almsivi in a leadership position in the Guild, and doubly pleased she was the wizard in charge of the Guild Hall. Over the course of a month she sounded them out on how they felt about magic, and planted the idea of a better integration of magic into their warfare. She managed to coax a noble named Fedave Romayn into training some of his guards in destruction magic via the Mages Guild, at a reduced introductory price. One of her Mages, a Nord name Kjol Whitebeard, disliked the idea of training Dunmer armies that could oppose the Nords. He was hardly the only one in her Guild Hall, but he was the ringleader and the centerpiece of opposition. She kept him away from the training, but increasingly she became paranoid of him. He was plotting and she knew it. It was a simple matter to find out for a master of illusion. Sadene would remove her shoes and turn herself invisible, then silently creep around following him. What she learned was enough to make her furious. Not only was he actively trying to persuade her trainers to stop, he was drafting a petition to have her removed from hr position as head of the Guild Hall, and hoping to supplant her himself. Somehow she doubted he’d be fool enough to engage in a duel with her, which left other options for her. As soon as he had his petition completed she had it intercepted in the post and destroyed, but not before taking note of each name. Then she contacted her own superior, a rather absent-minded Breton Master Wizard named Arienne, who was in charge of Morrowind’s Mages Guilds. The letter she sent warned of a conspiracy to sabotage the Guild Hall in her city, by forces unknown. She requested special authority powers to wean her ranks of traitors to the Guild, and received her permissions to do so. Gleefully she drew up papers on all those who’d signed her petition and transferred them to Elsweyr. Kjol she expelled from the Guild instead. She received four new mages to replace them, mages who readily obeyed her. Loyalty was restored in the Guild. The next few years were filled with training Redoran fighters bits of magic they could practice on the battlefield, and with producing potions out of local flora and fauna for sale. The Guild’s coffers were full and things were prosperous, if uneventful. Everything changed in 3E 396. Sadene was 80 years old at the peak of the Imperial Simulacrum. Wars were rampant. In Black Marsh the Argonians were at war with the Dunmer. The Arnesian war, stemming from both slavery and the horrific murder of a Dunmer merchant, was underway. And while the bulk of Morrowind’s armies were elsewhere, the Nords were looking to expand again at the expense of the Dunmer. There were border wars, and the Imperial Legion was nowhere to be found. All the training the Redorans had taken was put to good use, and over the course of the year a dozen incursions were beaten back. It was sweet vindication. It was a good year for the Dunmer, with territorial gains and a special sense of national pride. Sadene was no exception. She was a proud Dunmer, proud of both her people and her religion, both of which had a special prestige now. A few short years later the Simulacrum was ended, and peace was restored to the Empire, and Black Marsh suddenly became a destination for new opportunities. The Arch Mage in Cyrodil was looking for a candidate to spearhead the new development, someone with experience travelling, playing politics, and surviving dangerous encounters. Through recommendations, the name of Sadene Andalara wound up on his desk. She was everything he was looking for, and without a second thought he ordered her to Soulrest in Black Marsh, to head up the Guild in Argonia. Sadene, unsurprisingly, wasn’t thrilled about leaving her homeland yet again, and she even toyed with the idea of resigning from the Guild and working for the Tribunal Temple again. In the end she put her affairs in order and headed off for the swamps of Black Marsh with the new rank of Master Wizard. She’d make a good faith effort for the Guild she’d spent so many decades in, even if merely for personal honor. She began another long journey, by ship along the inner sea to Old Ebonheart, then over land to Tear, where she got on another ship and headed to Soulrest, the capitol of Argonia. Her experience was about to change quickly. Being a Dunmer in Black Marsh was one of the most difficult experiences in all of Tamriel, second only to being a slave in Morrowind or a prisoner in some of the worst dungeons. There was a deep-seated racial hatred at work there, and it was mutual. Sadene’s usual political wheeling and dealing was confined to the Imperials and adventurers, the only people she could stomach dealing with. She even went so far as to delegate affairs with Argonians and Argonian officials to various aides so she could avoid exchanging words with them. Word went round that she was simply introverted and didn’t like dealing with people, though many Argonians had suspicions she was simply a racist. Increasingly, things weren’t safe for Dunmer in the province. Her very first year there she was walking home to the Guild Hall from another member’s house where she’d eaten dinner, when an Argonian with black body paint attacked her with a knife. Luckily she always scrutinized beast species with a paranoid eye and saw the knife in time. She hurriedly cast a recall spell that took her straight to the Guild Hall safe and sound. After that, she took security a little more seriously, seeking out training in short blade, and investing in a quality glass dagger enchanted to burn its victim. She specifically chose the fire damage effect in case it was turned on her, so she could better resist the damage. Her approach even changed a little. She started to identify clear ways of escape, took security precautions by locking her quarters and installing a sliding viewport, and avoided traveling alone after that. She oversaw the construction of each new Guild Hall, four in total, and set about placing Wizards she trusted in charge of them, men and women with good loyalties and skills. She kept a very tight control over Guild activities, with a special precaution to the provision of training in destruction magic to avoid it falling into the wrong hands. She also made it a major goal to fight the profane practice of necromancy wherever it was found, which, in the remote areas of Black Marsh, was a surprisingly wide vicinity. But even if mostly on principle, the fight was made clear. Guild dues were put to use, fees were collected off of training costs, and some improvement was always being made. Sadene Andalara keeps the Mages Guild moving. Always. Class: Mage Attributes: Agility- 62 Endurance- 57 Intelligence- 82 Luck- 50 Personality- 42 Speed- 55 Strength- 40 Willpower- 90 Skills: Major- Mysticism 75 Destruction 50 Alteration 81 Illusion 90 Restoration 41 Minor- Enchant 21 Alchemy 40 Unarmored 23 Short Blade 40 Conjuration 22 Edited by lmr, Dec 27 2011, 07:16 AM.
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| lmr | Dec 27 2011, 07:15 AM Post #2 |
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RP Sample: Sadene Andalara kneeled on the ornamental pillow before the Shrine of the Tribunal she kept in her personal quarters. The gilded scenes from the Temple’s canon were glistening in the candlelight, and the flickering seemed to be in time to the hymn in the Dunmer Mage’s head. The moment was a synthesis of what she chose to value, a special natural blend of contemplation, meditation, and prayer. Of course those weren’t her only values, as a quick look around the room would tell anyone. Apart from the essential bed and dresser, there was a pair of large round cushions in purple upholstery, a heavy desk covered in alchemy equipment, and on one wall a bookshelf brimming with literature on a dozen subjects, from fiction to religion. However the dominant feature of the room was a large window. From the window was a striking view of the city of Soulrest, particularly the deep blue water of the bay and the tall masts of the ships that travel in and out of the Argonian capital. A knock came at the heavy wood door and Sadene opened her red eyes, which seemed to glow in the morning light coming from her open window. It was early still, which was what kept her from sweltering in the tropical heat and humidity of Black Marsh. To be fully honest, she tried to keep most of her activity around dawn and dusk, to avoid the heat. Apparently she wasn’t the only one, judging by the knock on the door. The Dark Elf rose from her knees onto her feet and started across the room to the large wooden door shut with an iron bolt. She slid open a viewport in the door roughly five feet up, which was even with her height. Sadene was a very petite woman, in the best possible way. She made up for it with admirable curves. Life was a mixed bag if ever there was one. Outsider the door was a mage she recogonized from the Guild Hall in Thorn, a city some called ‘The Jewel of the East.” Sadene knew better, and could confidently say it was actually the nearby city of Thorn. But if she could pick, she’d pick the city of Almalexia. Of course she wasn’t the be-all and end-all of authority in the Empire. Merely the Mages Guild in Black Marsh. Rank had its privileges, including her personal quarters. The Dunmer woman slid shut the viewport and unlatched the heavy door swinging it out away from her room, which was just one more protection against intruders. As she did so, the non-intruder came bustling in and sat down uninvited on the cushion. She closed and latched the door, then sank onto one across from him in silence, waiting for him to speak the first words. “You would not believe the shape of the roads in this Province Sadene,” the Imperial said with a sigh, wiping his brow with an elaborate handkerchief. “Yes I would. You forget I’ve lived in this dank mudhole for the better part of a decade,” Sadene said flatly, legs and arms both folded up neatly. “Ah yes, of course that’s right. Sometimes I forget how long you’ve been languishing in this dark and gloomy place my dear. Personally, I don’t know how I’ve managed so long. Glad to have paid that visit to Cyrodil last month dear.” Sadene held up a staying hand. “I’d prefer you refer to me by name or my rank rather than your ‘dear.’ Merely because we’ve know each other from my time in Cyrodil doesn’t mean we are on terms that familiar Caius. Now, what of the Guild in Cyrodil?” “Well,” Caius began, seemingly unfazed by the polite dressing down, “The New Arch mage is hell on necromancers they say. Some folks speculate he used to be one, given how much he knows about them. I’m not so sure. At any rate…” As the man talked and talked, Sadene’s eyes were led out the window and up into the sky. Beautiful day to levitate. Or to throw your overbearing companion out the window… Sadene smiled thinly. |
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| K-T | Dec 29 2011, 07:20 AM Post #3 |
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Looks like a mighty fine character to me! I can't honestly see any real problems other than the age but hey, if a member of another species can get the same rank in a "normal" lifespan, then everything checks out just fine. So with that said, APPROVED!!!
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